• quixotic120@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    13 days ago

    Depends on the piracy site. If you go to some of the pirate streaming sites or the blogs that host tons of pirated software with 30 rapidgator links that die after a month (instead of just using a torrent like a normal sensible person trying to share a 2-30+gb file that is begging to be taken down) without Adblock it’s absolutely comical how many ads there are. Even with Adblock those are the sites that manage to still have ads because they’re on the cutting edge of sketchy shit. It’s like seeing a late 90s to early 2000s website with how much random bullshit is pasted everywhere

    Despite that I’m pretty sure that Amazon, google, etc do far more nefarious shit behind the scenes in terms of tracking/fingerprinting you and collecting data to sell

    • ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      I’m pretty sure that Amazon, google, etc do far more nefarious shit behind the scenes in terms of tracking/fingerprinting you and collecting data to sell

      You even get to pay more and more for this privilege…smh

  • aeronmelon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    13 days ago

    I don’t think the facts match the claim, but I completely agree with the sentiment.

    For years, the ‘legit’ consumer has had to deal with ad interruptions and bad UI and service disruptions and having media removed from their library. Something that pirates don’t even have to think about. The music revolution that Jobs and Apple created with iTunes, which allowed people to just buy music and just own it and just use it however they want (no DRM) with an ease that made piracy look difficult and seem too risky to bother, never came for TV or movies or books or any other media category.

    And now the streaming revolution has all but undone that progress as well. You don’t own anything, a company decides when you have or lose access to something, and even if you pay money for access you are still advertised to and your data is still sold off.

    • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      I remember iTunes only letting you change computer like 2-3 times max before the drm would make mysic not work any more, but maybe it was no-drm in the beginning.

      I had a chinese 1GB shuffle though so IDK if that’s correct.

      The chinese shuffle also doubled up as a usb key (very useful back then) and also didn’t need iTunes to function smh.

      • krashmo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        13 days ago

        Yeah this guy is on some Apple fanboy shit if he thinks iTunes was drm free. Their shitty design for iTunes and decision to force you to use it despite it making the experience of listening to music much worse is the primary reason an ipod is the only Apple device I’ve ever owned. Freedom of choice and Apple have never mixed. That’s such a weird angle to take when describing them.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    4·
    12 days ago

    Advertising needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking.

    It indiscriminately pollutes whatever environment it’s conducted within, and causes secondary harm to non-participants by incentivising hoarding of PII in the cheapest and least secure manner.

    • DillyDaily@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      12 days ago

      It causes genuine harm, I’m visually impaired and I’ve wandered into construction zones because advertising billboards are mounted near and “road work ahead” signs and everything is all just bright and bold.

      I don’t know what’s official, everything is competing for my attention but I have very little capacity to dedicate my full attention to a visual sign. The end result is incredibly fatiguing, seeing a bright sign and straining to ensure I read it because it’s colours look important, nope, it’s an ad, that was a waste of energy, oh look another one with the same blurry colours and type setting it’s probably the same ad… Nope that one actually needed my attention, and now I’m somewhere I shouldn’t be and I’m in danger.

      I’m also hard of hearing, but fortunately audio adber in the public isn’t as bad, but anyone who’s hearing impaired knows how fatiguing it is to try and filter through noise. It’s the exact same for visual impairment.

  • JovialMicrobial@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    12 days ago

    Ad revenue is like Crack to corporations. Once they get a taste for it, it’s all downhill from there.

    Mostly because it’s the easiest money they’ll ever make and it’s more profitable than subscription models. Gotta see those numbers go up at all costs.

  • paw@feddit.orgEnglish
    2·
    13 days ago

    Besides streaming, i.e. the capability to watch the movies and series when you want and how much you want, and lowering the entry to produce videos for more people, they pretty much reinvented cable. Or did I miss something substantial?

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    13 days ago

    Once ads are allowed into a platform they will ultimately be what destroys it eventually.

    Might take a week or a decade. But the lust of that easy ad money will ruin the thing they were put there to fund in the end.

    • GeneralInterest@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      I don’t think that’s necessarily true - maybe it depends on (a) the owners of the platform and/or (b) whether there are sources of funding besides advertising

      E.g. here in the UK, the BBC and Channel 4 are both broadcasters owned by the government, and both are funded at least in part by adverts. But I think both of them are relatively healthy and aren’t on the brink of destroying themselves.

      I think most of the BBC’s funding comes from the licence fee (British people pay for a TV licence) but they make some money from ads shown to international audiences. Channel 4 is solely funded by adverts I think, but it’s owned by the government and I think they have to abide by certain rules and targets.

      • Hamartia@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        12 days ago

        In the UK the BBC only has advertisements for its own content, nothing else. As bad as its got since Tony Blair and David Cameron both undermined its independence and quality, at least there are no ad breaks in its shows.

        • GeneralInterest@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          12 days ago

          True, they don’t show commercial adverts in the UK, but they do to other countries. People outside the UK can access the BBC website but they’ll see adverts on there, and apparently BBC America (shown in the US) has commercial adverts

          And Channel 4 of course does show commercial adverts in the UK, but I think they still make some decent content, and I don’t think they’re on the verge of self-destruction

          Maybe the real problem is when an entity is chasing profits, because Channel 4 isn’t a normal for-profit business, since they’re owned by the government, and I think they have to abide by some rules

          • Hamartia@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            12 days ago

            Well the distinction here is that TV license paying citizens of the UK don’t get the ads.

            • GeneralInterest@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              12 days ago

              But then you could look at Channel 4, which does show ads to UK people, but I think Channel 4 is still okay and I don’t think it has been ruined by ads. So maybe a profit motive is what causes enshittification, rather than just ads. I definitely hate ads but maybe ads alone don’t destroy platforms.

              • Hamartia@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                11 days ago

                You won’t get any disagreement from me on the corrosive effects of advertising.

                I do think that Channel 4 used to regularly produce greater content than it can now. But that probably is more to do with advertising revenue being leeched away to online platforms and the growth of its direct competitors.

                • GeneralInterest@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  0·
                  11 days ago

                  Interesting, maybe the content has changed, I probably don’t watch enough TV to have noticed. But I think Channel 4 news is pretty good, and I liked their Paralympics coverage.

  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.orgEnglish
    2·
    13 days ago

    ublock origin. I don’t care if some website dies. Whole internet is turning to shit anyways, just let it all burn

    • SplashJackson@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      I’d love it if we started the internet from scratch again with no search engines, just webrings and link books and geocities pages everywhere

    • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      I feel like most of the kind of people who go out of their way to pirate also go out of their way to avoid ads.

      • sudo@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        13 days ago
        1. Download Firefox (or other preferred gecko browser)
        2. Install uBlock Origin add-on

        Really going out of the way to avoid them.

        • Tribble_Slayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          I mean I set up a Pi-Hole along with U-Block Origin, and I have my Jellyfin NAS running all my shows/movies so that I very seldom see any advertisements ever…

          • sudo@lemmy.todayEnglish
            1·
            13 days ago

            Pi hole is definitely great but I’ll concede that getting that going probably qualifies as ‘going out of the way’. That said, it is worth every penny/second spent configuring.

        • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          You’d be surprised how many people don’t have the motivation/understanding to do even that.

      • huquad@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        13 days ago

        Had this bite me once growing up. Forgot to get an ad block on my friends PC and ended up blasting porn ads on the family PC.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    13 days ago

    Much like the twenty minutes of unskippable ads on commercial DVDs, the media companies and social media will enshittify until the general public turns to piracy.

    Essentially, the sooner we all come to terms with piracy being acceptable necessary, the sooner they let off on their enshittification efforts.

  • thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    12 days ago

    I have legit never bought a single thing because I saw and ad for said product. I don’t know who is out here making these campaigns so profitable

    • LifeOfChance@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      Here’s a really horrifying fact about ads, they don’t expect you to go right out and buy their product. Ads target your subconscious and manipulate your way of thinking. There was a study done by some university and tested by a few people across different fields of study that proved this to be correct. I wish I could remember off the top of my head where this was published. If you do a little browsing you can probably find it and you should because you can’t trust a stranger like me to properly relay the information.

  • yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    13 days ago

    You know I was just thinking this the other day, and they are just as intrusive as the ones that piracy sites have